Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
It is known to use a large number of access control devices in an access control environment. Before each individual access control device is able to function as part of the access control environment, those individual devices need to be commissioned and configured. Commissioning refers to a process whereby the devices are initialized to operate within a common access control environment. Configuration refers to a process whereby configuration data is downloaded to the individual devices, thereby to allow those devices to function appropriately. For example, configuration data affects how a device will respond to an access request from a user.
From time-to-time, there may be a desire to modify configuration data on some or all of the access control devices within an access control environment and, in this regard, there are various known approaches for transferring new configuration data to those devices. For example, it is often possible to transfer such configuration data from a central server to the individual devices via a network, such as a TCP/IP network. Other approaches include the use of portable computers and the like.
Transferring configuration data can be a time and resource intensive task, and this can lead to complications in situations where there is a desire to make a change across an entire access control environment on an expeditious basis.
It follows that there is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for managing access control devices.